APC boycotts Delta LG re-run election

The All Progressives Congress said it would not participate in Tuesday (today’s)) by-election for the Ughelli North and Ethiope East council areas of the state.
The Chairman, Delta State Independent Electoral Commission, Mike Ogbodu, had on Sunday ordered a re-run election in the two councils following widespread violence including the burning of the DSIEC office in Ughelli by political thugs.
But the state Chairman of the APC, Prophet Jones Erue, urged the DSIEC to organise a fresh election in all the 25 local government areas as election did not take place across the state last Saturday.
Erue spoke on Monday during a press conference attended by the leaders of the party across the state at the Evwreni country home of the 2015 governorship candidate of the party, Olorogun O’tega Emerhor, in the Ughelli North council area of the state.
The APC chairman said although it was prepared to participate in the council election, what happened fell short of a free and fair election as the exercise was marred by irregularities.
He stated that both the state government and DSIEC were not prepared to conduct a credible election where the electorate would be allowed to freely choose who governs them.
Erue said, “For the record, I want to reiterate that the elections purportedly organised by the Okowa-led PDP government in the entire state was a fraud. The Okowa government rigged his own election by confiscating all sensitive election materials including result sheets and then resorted to writing all the results and handing same to DSIEC to announce.